CHILD TRAFFICKING ON LAKE VOLTA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 001327

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM ELAB KTIP XY GH
SUBJECT: CHILD TRAFFICKING ON LAKE VOLTA


1. (U) SUMMARY: Poloff and Democracy and Human Rights
Program Coordinator (DHRC) spent December 1-3 in fishing
villages on Lake Volta with the West Africa Regional Director
for the NGO Free the Slaves and the Director of the Ghanaian
NGO Challenging Heights following children believed to have
been trafficked. Emboffs saw over two dozen fishing canoes,
each of which contained at least one and usually two or three
boys between the ages of about 7 and 14. It was unclear
whether the boys were trafficking victims or were children
used by family members to work in hazardous conditions. Based
on conversations with fisherman and villagers in the lake
region, it appears that economic deprivation is a principal
factor in the Lake Volta region that creates an environment
in which trafficking and labor take place. Local and
international NGOs are doing good work in rescuing children,
but it does not address the causes of trafficking that are
deeply entrenched: poverty, ignorance, and tradition. END
SUMMARY


2. (U) For the three days December 1-3, Emboffs toured
fishing villages along the shores of Lake Volta with NGO
contacts Challenging Heights and Free the Slaves covering
both the Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions to observe
trafficked young boys fishing the lake. During the visit,
Emboffs saw over two dozen fishing canoes each with usually
three or four males in the canoe. In each boat, there was
always a boy appearing to be between as young as 7 years and

14. Many boats had two or three young boys working the nets
or paddling.


3. (U) According to NGO contacts working this issue, the boys
usually work two shifts in a long day. The first shift starts
about 04:00 when they take the canoes out to the designated
fishing area and lay the nets at sunrise. The boys stay on
the lake until about 11:00 when they return to shore for
their first meal of the day. After a lunch of dried fish and
a cup of rice, they return to the water and fish until dark,
around 18:00. In an average day, the nets are set nine times,
which means the boys are continuously setting then pulling
into the canoe large lead weighted fishing nets. If the net
becomes tangled or is caught on a stump, a boy must dive
15-20 feet to free the net, which is a leading cause of death
by drowning. According to the NGOs, each year, at least a
dozen boys are killed trying to untangle a net. Of the dozens
of fish Emboffs saw, only one was a tilapia. The fish caught
were primarily bottom feeders that looked like catfish or
small minnow-like fish the size of an adult human index
finger.


4. (U) According to the NGOs, specific towns in southern
Ghana are "source villages" for trafficked boys, including
Winneba and Ada. Traffickers from the fishing villages travel
to the source town to recruit children to work on the lake.
Parents give three main reasons why they sell their children.
The main reason is poverty. Ignorance about exactly what is
going to happen to the children is a secondary reason. The
parents do not understand the full ramification of what their
child will be doing. The parents often believe that the child
will have a better life on the lake than what the family can
provide at home. Another reason for trafficking is tradition.
In some villages, children of successive generations are sent
to work on the lake for a few years with the promise of
returning home to go to school, usually after an older
sibling has completed his education.


5. (U) Of the communities visited, not one had a school, and
the NGOs told Emboffs that none of the village children
attend school. This appears to be due in large part to the
fact that the fishing villages are mobile, moving from place
to place along the lake as conditions warrant.


6. (SBU) The NGOs have provided conflicting accounts of the
role that law enforcement plays in their work. Challenging
Heights told Emboffs that police are not interested in
enforcing anti-trafficking laws in fishing villages. When a
case if brought to their attention, said Challenging Heights,
the police prepare a letter and ask the NGO to deliver it.
At the same time, there appears to be a disincentive for NGOs
to involve the police. Another Ghanaian NGO involved in
rescuing children on Lake Volta told Emboffs that a critical
part of his work is developing relationships with fishing
villages and building confidence. If police arrested village
members based on information from the NGO, he said that he
would no longer be able to do his work. This NGO leader
stressed to Poloff that law enforcement was not the right
approach to resolving this problem, which requires economic
development and sensitization.


7. (U) Poverty appears to be an overriding cause of
trafficking. According to NGO contacts, children are seen as
a commodity for families that have little to sell. In a video
presentation that Challenging Heights uses to promote

ACCRA 00001327 002 OF 002


awareness of trafficking, one woman said, "I did not bring
forth many children. I had only six." She sold three of
them. When asked if she was now rich after selling her
children, she replied that no, she was still a poor woman.
Another woman admitted that she has received 50 Ghana cedis
(about $35) for her child.


8. (U) The economics of fishing is also a driving force
behind the purchase of children. Fisherman need the children
for cheap labor because of the shortage of adults willing to
do their difficult work. Children are used for all aspects of
fishing, from paddling canoes and setting nets, to bailing
water from the perpetually leaking canoes and mending nets.


9. (U) Comment: While NGOs are performing important work
rescuing child trafficking victims, and the police have taken
some steps to prosecute traffickers, the problem of
trafficking on Lake Volta will like persist without a
comprehensive economic development plan that would eliminate
the financial incentives of trafficking. In addition, the
lack of educational opportunities, due to the fact that
fishing settlements are temporary and transient means that
children and adults in these communities are illiterate and
have few alternatives to earn a living. Greater police
involvement could create some disincentive to traffickers,
but in the long-term, a greater emphasis on economic
development and education is essential if fishing communities
are to obtain opportunities that make child trafficking
unattractive. Without increased educational and economic
opportunity, the good works of NGOs are only masking the
problem. NGOs are only able to rescue one child at a time and
only several dozen in a year. End Comment
TEITELBAUM